Can Computer Games Teach Your Child Skills?

2019-01-31 15:00

Joscelyn Kate

Since video games have gotten their pretty flesh of cute graphics and bones of enthralling gameplay, parents have been doubting whether virtual adventures can be useful. Some experts - psychologists, sociologists, etc. - even claimed that videogaming would be responsible for the collapse of our very society.

But what is your kid can benefit from another RDR2 or PUBG session?

1. Everything has rules

As you know, a game cannot be legit without rules to comply. And that's the first thing your child will learn about them. To achieve the psychological satisfaction and feel proud, he/she will need to beat that obnoxious boss/take that castle by storm/solve a moderately complicated audiovisual puzzle in Dead Space, etc.

In other words, no prize is achievable, until a certain price of sweat, concentration, and effort has been paid.

2. Multitasking

Have you heard of strategy games? Starcraft, Civilization, Clash of Clans? Those games require enormous cognitive concentration and managing various tasks at the same time:

Build & maintain the base.

Prepare your army.

Manage finances.

Scout the area to locate the enemy.

Hold the defenses.

Devise tactics.

Forge alliances.

It's almost as easy as reciting a Horace's poem in Latin by heart and playing chess simultaneously.

3. Memory

Try memorizing the evolution chains of all Pokemon, weapon tactical characteristics in PUBG or Easter egg coordinates in GTA V. Such intricacies positively affect the memory parts of the brain and stimulate the development of abstract thinking. And better/faster memorizing can be rewarding in real life.

4. Adaptation

In most games, every new level is like a new chapter. It has a big portion of unpredictability, otherwise, players will get bored. E.g. In GTA you're stimulated to manipulate various vehicles/aircraft, controls of which feel very different. It's a mini-stress for the brain, which makes it adapt to new info and conditions faster than before. Let alone improvisation and out-of-box thinking get sharpened that way.

Conclusion

Above-mentioned skills are the most basic ones that video games can teach your child. Of course, they can't replace real education/training and reading literature, playing musical instruments, helping repair a car in the garage, etc. should be on your kid's schedule.

But blaming games and trying to take them out of your child's life completely is unfair. Everybody needs to relax sometimes, as multiple studies show. And games, apart from entertainment, can teach some valuable skills to a young person. So don't hate players or the games.